Group A - The Best Group
Online Game of the Year
Surprisingly there was a lot of love for Luigi's Mansion 3 in the podcast discussion, especially with the new DLC coming out in 2020, weird for a single-player story adventure game. But we had fun this year with Luigi! The Famicrew busted it up online together, plus JC put some time into the offline mode too. Our Patreon event Game Night also played a major part in our decision, as we played a ton of Super Nintendo Online during the event, plus we played the Japanese counterpart for our new Super Famicom Online series, and amazingly it actually has decent net code even across the pond! However the runner-up prize went to the incredible Super Mario Maker 2, which not only patched in online co-op which works well (in Japan at least), but also started off our new web series Mario Maker Minute, which is all about playing our friends' level online! However the clear winner of this award was Tetris 99, the free-to-play (if you have an NSO sub) battle royale Tetris game that someone on staff played quite a bit of! If you haven't tried it out yet, first of all what's wrong with you? Also secondly is your name Ty? With new modes added and regular events happening all year round, it's clear to see why this is our best online game of the year!
Pleasant Surprise of the Year
Lots of cool games and things came out in 2019, making this a tough category this year! James through his weight behind Asphalt 9: Legends, the f2p smartphone game that got ported to Switch and turned out to be amazing! Danny wanted Labo VR [video review] to get a shot for it's very Nintendo-take on VR, plus we can't forget that this year was the first time ever that Final Fantasy 7 finally came to Nintendo systems! [video review] However the winner came down to a debate on a specific game, and a certain trend and the game won! Poverty game pricing has been a big hit on the show this year, whether it was Ty buying $40 music games for $2, or JC's new podcast segment Garbage Bag of Goodness, it's been good times for gamers on a budget! The winner was a big surprise as it had been in limbo for 3 years, becoming a running joke on the show for potentially being vapourware as not a single gameplay video or screenshot had been shown despite it supposedly being in production since pre-launch. Not only that but the demo was so good it convinced a JRPG hater to actually become so enamoured with it, he made it his first purchase in that genre for approximately 20 years! It is of course Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age! Not bad for a game we thought might end up looking like an up-rezzed 3DS game!
TGS 2019 Hype of the Year
We know that 99% of the people reading this or listening to the show have never been to The Tokyo Game Show before, but that's why you come to us right? Back in September we covered the crap out of the show, showing as many Switch games or game potentially coming as we could! Of the 500 games that we played, most have since come out, but a handful haven't yet and still stand out as games to keep an eye on! The runner up was the 3D remake of the third Mana game (the one that never came out in the west) now entitled Trials of Mana. Of course a version is already out now as part of the Mana Collection which we covered back in early 2018 when it first released in Japan! The winner of most hype however goes to game that might not even make 2020, but we hope it does, it's R-Type Final 2! This gorgeous 3D sequel is shaping up to be pretty cool, and fingers crossed the Switch version turns out good too!
Indie Game of the Year
So many games, so many good ones to choose from! Aragami: Shadow Edition, is an awesome ninja stealth game with cross-play [video review], Shakedown Hawaii is the sequel to Retro City Rampage with beautiful pixel art and spot-on humor [gameplay]. Observer is a cool cyberpunk adventure game with amazing sound and a very famous voice actor [video review], My Friend Pedro, is the Matrix / Max Payne sequel you always wanted [gameplay], and SteamWorld Quest manages to make card-based RPG games fun, even for those who usually can't stand those kind of games [video review]. Those were the games that didn't win?!
The runner up and well-deserved No.2 spot goes to the amazing meowtroidvania game Gato Roboto [gameplay], the game where you play as a cat on a mission to help its owner out by strapping into a mech and going on an adventure! Cats helping out their owners? Yeah we know it's unrealistic, but it's so so good! The winner of the coveted Famicast Indies of the Year goes to...Valfaris! This is a game JC and Ty have been banging on about ever since they got their hands on it at TGS, and for good cause - it's awesome! It beautifully combines a run-and-gun shooter a-la Contra, with glorious heavy metal aesthetics and music, plus a decent helping of gore and explosions! [gameplay] If any of these games sound good to you, get them now!
Best Ongoing Game of the Year
These games weren't released in 2019, but they got some cool updates that kept us coming back to play! Of course Fornite got a bunch of updates and finally moved onto Chapter 2, but no one on staff went back to it since we streamed it last year [stream]. Splatoon 2 also had a decent year starting off with a cool winter festival event [gameplay], but ultimately the games biggest fans on the show dropped it for other games this year.
With Super Famicom Online coming out this year, you'd think Nintendo would drop Famicom / NES Online like a sack of potatoes, but actually they didn't! The app got a bunch of updates throughout the year, then after a brief hiatus came back with some real doozies at the end! Our video series will be going for a good while yet it seems! [Famicom Online with Danny and JC].
The clear winner was of course Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which got some incredible updates and DLC throughout 2019! Hero, Joker, Banjo Kazooie, and Terry from SNK, plus old modes making a comeback like homerun contest - it was a good year for Smash! Here's to more DLC and more FamiSmash tournaments!
[Banjo reveal / reaction] [Banjo gameplay] [Persona in Smash] [Terry Direct reactions] [Dragon Quest in Smash]
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